


Fifth

by coreopsis



Category: Alkaline Trio (Band), Bandom, Bob Bryar fandom
Genre: M/M, New Year's Eve, Party, Podfic Available, RPS - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-15
Updated: 2011-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-14 19:06:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coreopsis/pseuds/coreopsis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bob gets cuddly when he drinks and Matt is not pining.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fifth

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Multi-Fandom Advent Calendar and to fill the laughter square on my kiss bingo card. Massive thanks to Mahoni and Nemoinis for alpha and beta reading and support. Anything still weird is my fault.

When Matt walked into the party on New Years Eve, one of the first people he saw was Bob Bryar looking really hot in a black jacket and a shirt with actual color in it, so when Milla leaped into his arms for a hug he was already grinning. "Hey, gorgeous," he said, kissing her on the cheek.

She pulled back and poked him in the gut with one her sharp little fingers. "I expected you an hour ago. Everything all right?"

"Yeah, sorry, I got held up by a last minute phone call," Matt said absently, his attention drawn to Bob and the pretty blonde he was chatting with. "Who's that?"

Milla glanced around and knew who Matt was talking about as soon as she saw Bob. She knew all of Matt's little secrets. "Oh, Sandy? She did makeup on the movie I just wrapped last month. She's an absolute sweetheart. Isn't that dress beautiful?"

"You're wicked, you know that?"

"You love me."

"Of course, I do," Matt replied, but he was watching the amused twitch of Bob's lips as Sandy gave him a flirtatious smile.

Telling himself to get a grip, Matt waved off Milla's laughter and headed straight for the bar to grab a cocktail. When he made his way over to Bob, he walked up just in time to hear Bob say, "--sounds like your alternator. You should have your mechanic check that out."

"You sound like you know a lot about cars," Sandy said sweetly and flipped her long hair back over her shoulder.

"It's just a hobby." Bob shrugged and then looked around as Matt came up beside him. "Hey, Matt, good to see you. When'd you get here?"

"Just now." Matt gave Sandy a charming smile and said, "Sorry to interrupt your conversation."

"It's okay. Bob was just giving me some advice about my car." She held out her hand. "I'm Sandy."

"Matt. It's a pleasure to meet you." He shook her hand and was not the least bit surprised when Milla swooped in and dragged her away to meet some other people she was going to find _fascinating_.

"It was great talking to you, Bob," Sandy said over her shoulder before the crowd swallowed her up.

Bob lifted his glass in her direction and then turned to Matt. "Heard you're going on tour again. Where's it this time? Australia?"

"Yeah, it's summer down there now, so that'll be weird."

"You live in LA." Bob smirked a little and took a sip of his drink. "Go straight to Brisbane in February after freezing your balls off in Chicago for a couple months. That's some culture shock for you."

"I don't care how hot it is. I just want to find some time to go surfing while we're there."

"Sounds fun. As long as you don't get eaten by a shark." Matt stepped closer to Bob to let someone pass and Bob didn't move out of his way like he normally would. That was pretty space-tolerant for Bob, but he was still a calm little island in the middle of the jostling and joking and general party atmosphere. He wasn't withdrawn or being weird, was in fact smiling and saying hello to people he knew, but he kept himself physically contained in a way that was the complete opposite of Matt, who'd gotten stopped for hugs or handshakes six times between the front door and the bar.

But that was because everyone knew Matt was pretty free with affection, whereas Bob was a big fan of personal space...until about the fifth drink. He didn't become handsy, exactly, but he definitely didn't mind hanging off his friends. He wasn't quite to that point yet, and Matt idly wondered how many drinks Bob'd had so far.

"I'd be more worried about those gigantic spiders they've got. We saw one last time we were down there, it was like--" Matt held his hands up two feet apart, almost spilling his drink in the process. "--this big! I thought it was going to swallow Derek whole."

"Those fuckers are terrifying," Bob said with a tiny shudder, but then he smiled a little and tapped his hand against the outside of his leg, keeping the beat of the song playing over the stereo. "You guys should do a cover of this."

Matt listened to the song for a moment. It was an 80s power ballad that he could have a lot of fun with, but... "Derek would never go for it. Dan might, though. We could gang up on him."

"You could try, but is a Pat Benetar cover really worth it?"

"Hell, yeah. We could recreate the video and everything. We could give you a gold tooth so you could play the part of the pimp." Bob just snorted and shook his head, and Matt found himself wishing Bob was a few more drinks in already so that he'd lean against Matt's side and giggle in his ear and man, how pathetic was that? Matt tried to forget how lame he was being and said, "Don't dismiss the idea out of hand, Bob. You could do it."

"I'm not playing a pimp in your video," Bob said mildly and Matt let it drop because Danny Lohner came up and threw an arm around his shoulders.

"Dude, Wes has an awesome idea for a remix and he wants your input." Danny looked around and frowned. "Shit. Where'd he go? Come on, let's go find him."

"Okay." As Danny started tugging Matt away, he looked back at Bob and said, "See you around."

"Sure," Bob said and then smiled at some guy Matt didn't know who started talking to Bob as soon as Matt stepped away.

Danny and Matt found Wes, who it turned out didn't really need much input from Matt, just permission to use one of his songs, which Matt gave without hesitation. "We'll get the legalities worked out next week. But make sure you call me tomorrow and remind me or I'll forget we even had this conversation."

Danny laughed at him as Wes made a note in his iPhone, and Matt glanced around to see where Bob was. He was sitting on the end of a sofa listening attentively to Sandy, who was perched on the arm next to him and seemed to have wasted no time reclaiming Bob once Matt was gone.

Matt told himself he wasn't jealous and went off to find someone to dance with. One dance turned into four, and after that he needed a drink so he went back to the bar.

Bob was chatting with the guy mixing drinks and when Matt walked up he put a hand on Matt's shoulder and said, "Hey Matt, can you believe I worked with Tim here at the House of Blues back in Chicago? Small world, right?"

"It is indeed," Matt said. "Give me whatever Bob's having."

Matt didn't watch what Tim poured into the glass, preferring to be surprised. He accepted the glass and took a sip, discovered it was scotch with a splash of soda and tossed it back. He handed the empty glass back with a "Thank you" and then turned back to Bob. "So, how's it going? Having fun?"

"Yeah." Bob sipped his own drink more slowly as they moved out of the way so that other people could get to the bar. "You must be having a good time. I saw you dancing with three different women--"

"And a guy."

"--and a guy."

"Why? Did you want to dance with me?"

Bob's cheeks were pink above his beard and his eyes sparkled as he laughed. "I don't think anyone wants to see me trying to dance."

 _What I Like About You_ segued into _Heartless Bastard Motherfucker_ and Matt said, "Come on, doesn't any of this make you want to get out there and shake your ass? Just a little?"

"Nope, not even a little. Hold still for a second," Bob said and reached toward Matt, who held his breath while Bob fiddled with his collar. "Sorry, it was bugging the crap out of me, sticking up all weird like that."

"That's cool," Matt said, trying to sound like he was cool too and not ridiculously twitchy at the brush of Bob's fingers across the back of his neck and the casual way Bob was all up in his space now.

And even though Matt didn't particularly want Bob to get drunk, that didn't stop him from being secretly pleased when Bob turned back a little too fast from setting his glass down and slung an arm around Matt's shoulders to catch his balance. He left it there while he tried to get his cigarettes out of his pants pocket, and Matt might have leaned into Bob just a little. Because he could.

And no matter what Dan said, Matt didn't take advantage of tipsy Bob's lowered inhibitions about touching because he was pining. Matt did not pine. Dan was so in love with his wife that sometimes he wanted the whole world to feel the same. But he was wrong about Matt. Nope, Matt was not in love or pining or anything of the sort. He just really liked it when Bob had that fourth or fifth drink and started leaning into Matt's side and laughing at all of Matt's jokes, not just the funny ones.

"I've gotta go out for a smoke," Bob said, tightening his arm around Matt's neck. "Come with."

"Sure, just stop choking me," Matt said, and reached up to grab Bob's hand to pull his arm away from his throat. He didn't let go as they made their way through the house that seemed to have gained twice as many people in the last hour or so. As they skirted around the dance floor, Milla gave Bob a long look and then grinned at Matt, and Matt had a brief moment of uneasiness over the way he'd confessed too much to her when he was drunk that one time. At least she didn't nag him about doing something and just respected his choice to pine. If he was pining, which he totally was not.

Matt snagged a couple bottles of beer from the kitchen and then Bob turned him loose so they could go out the sliding glass doors into a backyard lit mostly by strands of Christmas lights wound around the trees and draped across the back of the house.

There were a couple other smokers already out there, but they seemed to be deep in conversation so Matt and Bob moved over to a bench at the opposite side of the patio. Matt opened the beers while Bob lit his cigarette, and then held out the pack.

"No, thanks." Matt waved him off and took a sip of beer. "New year's resolution. It's not good for the pipes."

"Neither's weed, booze, or blowjobs, but I'll bet you're not giving up any of them for the new year," Bob said, amusement lurking just under every word. But Matt noticed that Bob was being more careful than usual to blow his smoke away from Matt.

"Then what would be the point of living?" Matt passed Bob the other bottle and settled back against the bench, stretching his legs out in front of him. He glanced at Bob out of the corner of his eye and said, "Well, I guess I could live without giving blowjobs as long as I could still get them. It wouldn't be as much fun, though, not being able to reciprocate."

Bob choked on his beer. Matt patted him on the back and smiled as Bob got his breath back enough to snicker. "You're shameless."

"That can't be news to you."

Matt raised an eyebrow as Bob shot him a weird little look and then smiled. "I guess not." He took a long drag off his cigarette and turned his head to let the smoke out, then said, "I should probably quit too."

"What? Giving blowjobs?" Matt asked, all wide-eyed innocent.

Bob laughed so loud that the couple on the other side of the patio looked around in surprise. While Bob was distracted, Matt stole the cigarette from his unresisting fingers and took a drag.

"Hey, you quit," Bob said, taking it back and tucking into the corner of his mouth.

"The new year doesn't start for another--" Matt glanced at his watch but it was too dark to read it clearly. "--few minutes. I guess we should go back inside soon for the counting down and the champagne and finding someone to kiss at midnight."

"I'm okay right here." Bob looked at Matt in a way that made Matt wish there was more light so he could see all the nuance of Bob's expression, then he looked away and twitched his shoulders in a little half-hearted shrug. "I never really liked the taste of champagne."

Matt scooted incrementally closer on the bench and said, "Really? What do you like then besides scotch--" He motioned to the bottle dangling carelessly from Bob's left hand. "--and beer, obviously?"

Bob chewed at the corner of his lip and looked down at the cigarette pinched between his fingers. "Let's just say that weed's the only thing I'd give up for the new year. I mean, if I smoked it."

"Oh, you...um." When caught completely off-guard, Matt had a bad tendency to speak before thinking, so being speechless was a whole new feeling. It was probably a good thing, though, because sometimes he got in trouble engaging his mouth before his brain.

Bob laughed again but this time it had a sheepish, embarrassed quality. He shouldn't have felt embarrassed, but then Matt shouldn't have been surprised either. It was just that Bob's sexual practices--hell, even his preferences--fell under the giant umbrella of Personal Things That Bob Doesn't Talk About. Obviously Matt had no such reservations in general or they wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place, but maybe he'd had ulterior motives in letting Bob know certain things about him over the years. Maybe he'd secretly hoped that Bob would be interested in the way he liked the ladies and the gentlemen in equal measure.

Bob took a long drink of his beer and set the bottle down by his feet. "I should get going."

"No, stay." Matt slid closer so that their knees were touching and said, "It's almost midnight and I haven't even wished you a happy birthday yet."

Bob dropped his cigarette butt into the nearly empty bottle and shrugged. "You don't have to. It's no big deal."

"Yeah, I do. Otherwise Dan will never let me hear the end of it for letting the opportunity pass me by." Matt gathered his courage and leaned forward. If this were a romantic comedy, Bob would have also leaned forward and met his lips in a tender, surprisingly well-choreographed kiss.

But since it was real life and not a movie, Bob didn't pick up the unspoken signal, just laughed and said, "What does Dan have to do with anything? He's not even here."

"No, but he keeps telling me I should say something."

"About what?"

"This." Matt brought a hand up to the back of Bob's neck. He leaned in and pressed a light kiss to Bob's closed mouth. He watched Bob carefully as he asked, "Should I have not done that?"

"No," Bob said, and Matt felt a little clench in his chest but was determined not to show it. Then Bob's brow crumpled in confusion. "No, I meant yes. Fuck. Whatever's the right answer to make you do it again. Now that I know it's coming and can kiss back."

"That works." Matt tilted his head to kiss Bob again, just as Bob tilted his the same way. They bumped noses and then Bob put a hand on Matt's jaw to hold him still. Just before their lips met, Matt whispered, "Happy birthday. Sorry I didn't get you a present."

This time when Matt kissed him Bob was laughing. A little while later, the countdown started from inside the house, and when everyone yelled "Happy New Year," Bob pulled back and grinned.

"You did. And it's definitely better than champagne."

The end.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Fifth [Podfic]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/368705) by [Fleur Rochard (fleurrochard)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurrochard/pseuds/Fleur%20Rochard)




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